1) One amenity the broker probably doesn't mention when touring Ian Schrager's 40 Bond Street development in Noho is the army of rats that will be at your beck and call. Reports Page 6, "One neighbor said when he looks out his window sometimes, 'The rats are parading like Radio City Rockettes.'" While admitting there has been a rat problem, Schrager himself denies that it has been anything out of the ordinary: "Rodents are a fact of life in New York City, as well as every other city. We are trying to be good neighbors and are taking all the normal precautions.'" [Page Six]
2) MetLife and its broker, CB Richard Ellis, released a 117-page offering memorandum for the upcoming sale of Peter Cooper Village/Stuy Town. Highlights include a reccomendation of turning the property into a gated community, turning the looping roadways into private parking spaces, adding a health club, and speeding up degregulation through investigation illegal stabilization tenants and capital improvements. CBRE believes "new ownership has infinite opportunities to personalize, improve and transform the complex into the city’s most prominent market-rate master community." Cough. Metro Section/NYTimes]
3) East Village hard rock club Continental gets set to shutter after one last ass-kickin weekend, but the culprit is not just rising rents. "The closing was prompted by broader developments: a changing East Village, a gradual thinning of crowds, a scarcity of new rock bands." [Neighborhood Report/City Section]
4) Park Slope mommies rejoice: several Muslim deli owners take a religious stand over the sale of beer in their stores. Shop Owner Kareem Salem explains, “Beer’s a big seller but first of all you have to think of your religion.” Another owner was only able to drop alcohol when he received a license to cell cigarettes, which seems like a reasonable trade. [Neighborhood Report/City Section]